Horror Comics Breakdown: 1/4/2013

This week’s been a righteous one for horror comics. I can’t remember the last time I’ve not only enjoyed every single issue, but wanted to read every one again as soon as I finished them. The images, great jumping Jehoshaphat man, the images! And the writing, fused with such disgusting, grandiose panels and pages! I feel like a kid in a candy store!

Hellboy in Hell #2

Yet again we have an issue where Hellboy explores Hell, and very little action takes place, save for in a flashback. However, unlike the first issue, this second takes place in Hell proper, which is nice. We get to see the great city below, known as Pandemonium, where Satan is said to be sleeping. Shhh, don’t wake Satan. Also, we get to see the throne Hellboy is intended to sit upon to rule the world below. Hellboy meets another spirit, as apparently Hellboy in Hell is very similar to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol…but in a flaming pit of fiery despair. Like Las Vegas.

Mignola is taking his time, but the flashback is nice. We get to see a baby Hellboy and learn that Satan cut off Hellboy’s right hand at birth to attach the stone one of doom. Talk about an abusive father.

All in all, a solid issue. Not a thrills-a-minute affair but it creeps up on you nice and slow. And all the architecture and beings found in Hell we meet bring about even more questions. Next issue it seems we meet The Devil. Excited for that.

Lot 13 #3

I’ve had an interesting time reviewing Lot 13. For one, I never actually did a write up of the first issue. I read it and was pressed for time so left it out of any weekly article. Then I forgot I hadn’t covered it and proceeded to jokingly give fellow Adventures in Poor Taste writer Dave Brooke crap for reviewing the second issue, assuming I’d already posted a review of the first. (Friendly work rivalries, ain’t they the greatest?) This brings us up to date with the saga known as the great Lot 13 reviewing debacle.

Steve Niles and Glenn Fabry, boy, they make a great team. I say this about nearly every artist Steve Niles works with. Niles knows how to make a terror fan happy.

So to does Fabry. This issue is packed full of explosions of gore, in a way unique to Fabry’s style. Bless him. I had such a hard time picking the gore panel of the week this week. Between this issue, and Colder’s third issue, it was really a struggle. Pound for pound (or is that pint for pint?) this issue has more sloshing about than Colder, but Colder’s is more unique splashing. If you have to pick between the two, and you’re a gore fan, I’d say go with this issue. Every page is filled with the red stuff.

The family stuck in the hotel (Oh right, this series has a plot! Forgot to mention it) attempts to escape the cursed place full of angry ghosts, to no avail. Think the end of Kubrik’s The Shining, but with an angry ghost door made of faces with a giant mouth in it, and a metric ass-ton of pissed off spirits who fuck with the living family at every turn. This issue is my favorite of all of the series. It’s gory, trippy, and has an excellent ending you don’t see coming. Lot 13 is a great series, and I can’t way to see where it’s going, and how Niles and Fabry will tie this tale of angry spirits up.

Fatale #11

Much like Colder, Fatale is more about the psychological terror of the unknown, and madness.

This new series is going to be flashbacks of our heroine, Josephine, as she first discovers she has the power to make men do whatever she wants, to alarming degrees.

This issue takes place in the 1930s and has an obvious Lovecraft knockoff: an author named Alfred Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft wrote a story published in a pulp magazine Jo read, and she thought it sounded an awful lot like what she’d experience, so she tracked the man down, and visited him in his Texas home. Ravenscroft explains what inspired him to write his tale, and we see a twelve-year-old version of him…

Don’t judge him too harshly, as the dude he’s stabbing lured his mom into a cult, which worships things all tentacley. And after reading a book the cult leader keeps in his tent…

THE INADVERTENTLY LOOKS LIKE TENTACLE RAPE PANEL OF THE WEEK

A solid first issue, and it’s great to see more homage to the great one. Few realize how much Lovecraft contributed to the modern horror tale. Well, few who aren’t incredible dorks that have spent hours researching into the origins of the terror tale. Anything with tentacles, you can pretty much attribute to Lovecraft.

Colder #3

My absolute favorite comic of the week. I… what do I even say about this one? All you have to know is Declan finally reveals a bit of why his body temp is so low, and he explains what’s up with Nimble Jack, and the crazy people, and The Hungry World.

My main reaction to this issue was flapping my hands by my face, and screaming like a woman. Due to panels like this:

GORE PANEL OF THE WEEK

And this.

Stop by next week, when hopefully I’ve stopped gibbering and drooling so much.